Legal Blog

Harassment prevention training is a critically important component of an organization’s plan to prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Workplace discrimination and harassment can lead to lawsuits that can do serious damage to a company’s finances and reputation. Importance of Anti-Discrimination Training Anti-discrimination training protects your business from disputes involving harassment, discrimination, and violation of federal and state laws governing the treatment of employees and coworkers in the workplace. It does this by Educating employees and managers on proper workplace conduct, Preventing discrimination and harassment, and Reducing the likelihood and/or success of harassment and/or discrimination claims and lawsuits. Training should
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Employers in Texas are required to display notices or posters in the workplace to inform employees of their rights and protections afforded by federal and state labor laws. There are certain workplace posters that must be displayed by all employers. Requirements for other posters vary based on number of employees, industry, and other factors. Workplace Posters All Texas Employers Must Display Regardless of the business’s size or industry, there are a number of posters that every employer must display under Texas and federal law. These are: Employee Rights Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (lists minimum wage) Employee Polygraph Protection
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Your Texas business may use independent contractors and employees to perform similar, if not the same duties from week to week. While the work they perform and their responsibilities may seem very similar, it is critically important that, as an employer, you understand the differences between independent contractors vs. employees. The differences between these two types of workers determine what types of laws apply to them when in your service. Misclassification of Workers Increasing Self-employed individuals have been providing services to businesses for decades, but there are more employment laws on the books now than ever before. In recent years,
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Employers must comply with numerous Department of Labor (DOL) laws concerning employee wages and hours, workplace safety, family and medical leave, and special rights granted to military veterans in the workforce, among others. A DOL audit can focus on any area of employment law. The DOL has the right to audit employers at any time, so employers are wise to be prepared for scrutiny. In light of pending changes to Wage & Hour rules proposed in the Fair Labor Standards Act, we have put together a checklist to help you steer clear of trouble during a DOL Wage & Hour
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Running a business becomes more complicated each day. In addition to the rigors of the competitive marketplace, you must manage your personnel and employment law issues as well. If your company has employees, you must stay abreast of labor laws, know which laws apply to your company, stay on top of changes in the law, and be sure your entire organization is in compliance. This can be a big job, regardless of how many you employ.
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The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a law intended to allow employees to take unpaid leave for certain health or family-related reasons. In order to qualify for FMLA leave, certain conditions must be met. Ultimately, it is eligible employees of covered employers who are protected by the FMLA.
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We are in the process of preparing our “Sensitive Employee Relations” presentation for the upcoming Frisco HR Summit at the end of March, so we thought we would provide you a preview of that speech while also providing some valuable information regarding mental disabilities and mental health and their relation to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Not only is mental health a very sensitive issue in the workplace but it can often be difficult to handle from a Human Resources perspective. Just as with other disabilities under the ADA, a mental disability is (a) any impairment that substantially limits one
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We get a lot of questions about workplace posters from employers and this can often be a somewhat confusing area. What posters you must display can be driven by the number of employees you have, the industry in which you operate, whether or not you have federal contracts, and a multitude of other factors. The Department of Labor has created a great tool for determining what federal posters you must display. You can access the tool here: http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/posters.htm. The tool is a step-by-step question process that is extremely easy to use. At the end, the tool provides valuable information about
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Last week, President Trump appointed EEOC Commissioner Victoria Lipnic as Acting Chair of the EEOC and appointed NLRB Board Member Philip Miscimarra as Acting Chair of the NLRB. As an EEOC Commissioner, Lipnic served as a member of the EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the workplace. Prior to her time with the EEOC, Lipnic served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards under President George W. Bush from 2002 through 2009. In that role, she oversaw the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the
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Effective January 22, 2017, employers must use a new Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The form can be found here: Form I-9. As a reference for employers, the new form is dated 11/14/2016. Among other changes, the new form has prompts to ensure information is entered correctly, has the ability to enter multiple preparers and translators, has a dedicated area for including additional information, and has a supplemental page for the preparer/translator. It is more digital friendly in that it has drop down lists, calendars for dates, on-screen instructions, and an option to clear the form and start over. Employers
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